


Post-Mission Debrief

by strifechaos



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: F/M, Friends With Benefits, Kid Fic, M/M, Miscommunication, Multi, Pining, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:33:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13052238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strifechaos/pseuds/strifechaos
Summary: An undefined relationships between Beck, Watney and Johanssen leads to: confusion, Nanny!Mark, hurt feelings and maybe with the help of everyone's favorite sassy pilot, a happy ending.Note: Scrambles the events of the end credit scenes of the movie a bit.Kidfic.





	Post-Mission Debrief

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LilyC](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyC/gifts).



This is a Yuletide 2017 gift for LilyC. Happy holidays and I hope this fits the bill! I had a lot of fun playing with these characters again.

Note: The events of the story ignore the order of the events shown at the very end of the film (post-rescue) and the mid-credit scenes. 

Note: I figure by the 2030’s Amazon will have come leaps and bounds where it is now, so I’m sure a Amazon Pantry Now option isn’t impossible considering they have Amazon Now (where you can order food stuff) and Amazon Pantry (where you can order a ton of different food stuff).  
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

At first they all don’t make sense as a couple.

Mark doesn’t get what’s going on between Chris and Beth. Passing notes via NASA isn’t the greatest for telling Johanssen she needs to hit that like a storm door in a hurricane. He’d hoped she’d be able to read between the lines, the nerd. Beck it turns out is even worse. Mark’s worried the relationship between his two favorite dorks may be doomed.

Martinez and Lewis went over a list of the various systems they’d cannibalized on the way back to pick him up, so he’s well aware that due to poor living conditions Beck and Johanssen have been sleeping together. Just not actually sleeping together -- not according to the conversation he’d had between his eyebrows and Martinez’s eyebrows. 

They had to stop though before they got to the really juicy bits because Lewis had started to look concerned and then suspicious. She relayed her observation to Beck, who took it as a good sign that if nothing else Mars only made Mark as crazy as Martinez.

So they’re bunking together.

Just not the way he’d encouraged them to, Mark blames space herpes. Or well, perhaps not space herpes, so much as a deep seated fear of Lewis parking her space boots up their collective asses if she found out. Mark hadn’t been kidding that their commander had given the rest of the crew a testicle-crawling-up-into-your-abdomen inducing shovel talk when it came to messing around with Johanssen.

-0-

When he’s first back on Hermes, Mark is parked firmly in the medical bunk (space is at a premium in space, so they don’t have a med bay as much as a corner with a bunk and some storage space for all Beck’s voodoo equipment). 

Beck, the nervous nellie, doesn’t leave Mark’s side for almost the first 48 hours he’s onboard, and Mark’s insistence that he survived for 19 months on his own is met with even more resistance because NASA approves of Beck’s surveillance. Or constant vigilance as Johanssen starts shouting. Nerd.

NASA especially doesn’t want their recently rescued former Mars resident to die after all the effort everyone went to in order to get him back in the first place. The rest of the crew visits, but Johanssen and Beck tend to take the night shift, curled up near if not on the bunk with Watney.

It leaves more questions than Mark is brave enough to ask them, he does know what he hopes it means but the entire crew had reached a quasi-family bond coming through two years of space training. Living in such close quarters on the journey out hadn’t lessened the bond, but Mark’s well aware he’s been out of the loop for 543 sols, alone on his desert planet, not directly interacting with the crew. There is a lot that he’s missed out on and they haven’t had a chance to catch him back up yet so he doesn’t want to assume.

Other than his favorite nerd and dork, there have been other subtle changes in the crew.

Lewis has distanced herself from the crew. They had been aware of a certain leader-minions chain of command that the military woman had always employed, if he was one of those NASA shrinks, he might think it was a way of coping with potentially having to make another life or death decision with the crew. He’s not a blood sucking vampire though, so he gets where she’s coming from, NASA didn’t pick people that couldn’t compartmentalize very well for missions of this caliber. If you got too hung up on a decision and it clouded your judgment-- in space that killed you and your crew and the future of the program. 

Vogel has become less tentative and standoffish, though Mark suspects that is because his English has improved, through necessity of his conversation partners speaking little German. Mark is sure to tease him about become Americanized. Though it threw Mark the first time he’d heard Beck and Vogel hold a conversation in Vogel’s mother tongue. Not all the changes are bad.

It’s strange, people he knew so well last he saw them changing so much. He’s partially to blame, he knows. His death at least. And then his rebirth. He doesn’t think they hold that against him.

A few days into his recovery Lewis had stopped by his med bunk (Dr. Bossy Beck insisted on bed rest until NASA had a better handle on his health situation) and told him about how the crew had come to life again after they’d been given a shred of a chance to come after him. She tells him how they’d unanimously decided. How Rick had started telling his awful jokes again, or how Vogel’s family had made a holiday out of Mark’s birthday back home, and how Beth had stopped running on the treadmill like a demon was on her heels in her free time, that Chris had started going over their medical stocks and obsessively reading any papers or documents about astronauts health after living on Mars. 

Intellectually he’d known the crew was happy to have him back, he’s not sure how to express how touched he is that his return (or potential return) had affected everyone so deeply. The corner of Lewis’ mouth quirks up, and she reaches out to squeeze him on the shoulder. She knows her people.

“I’m glad to have you back, Mark Watney.”

-0-

The Hermes continued on its journey home, 214 days of travel that don’t happen in the blink of an eye. There are still experiments and duties to carry out, and eventually even NASA has to agree that Mark is capable of pulling his own weight.

Without Beck hovering around him all the time, Mark gets a chance to observe the doctor with Johanssen. The chemistry is so vibrant that even Vogel makes a few thinly veiled comments and normally it takes serious prodding from Mark to get him to make a sassy remark so it’s blatant that the two are interested.

They give as good as they get, and a quick wit has always been a downfall for Mark, he can’t help but fall a little in love with them.

So he notices that they look at each other like they hung the moon. Mark makes himself happy to be a star burning nearby.

-0-

They’re almost home when they both ask if they can talk to him after his duties are complete for the day. The Hermes is in as good as condition as Mark can MacGyver it in with the supplies available onboard, so his duties are limited to fixing the botany experiments his crew flubbed in his absence.

He takes a while to understand what they're offering. He’s not really sure what to do with a chance of being with them, not until they invite him back to their bunk.

After that, Mark has a pretty solid idea of what to do with that, and he’s had a lot of free time on Mars to dream up some nifty scenarios to try out on a spaceship.

Chris and Beth approve.

The one time Vogel walks in on them, he does not. Mark’s pretty sure it’s because the German saw more of Mark’s ass than he ever wanted to, but Chris forbids him from bringing it up with the chemist. Beth seconds it. Mark in mum on the whole thing.

Watney is happy, and not willing to rock the Hermes with this new and fragile, precious thing between the three of them.

-0-0-0-0-

Once the make it back to Earth and the NASA doctors agree with Chris that it’ll be a couple months before the Ares 3 crew will physically recover from their space travel. 

Mark, much to his loud, vocal displeasure, will take even longer, though Beck has made strides in his recovery from such a long time on Mars, the weaker gravity on the plant had taken a harsh toll on the once vibrant astronaut’s physical body.

Annie, the terrifying head of PR, starts talking to them about interviews and how to handle various questions before they’re even out of medical. She stresses how important public perception of the crew is, and her gaze lingers on Lewis and Watney.

The public hadn't been too thrilled with Lewis for leaving a man behind, and Lewis taking the crew back and risking all of their lives had also won some displeasure from the public. Annie spends an afternoon going over how Lewis needs to walk the line of emphasizing how everyone came back alive and a host of ways to not answer questions. Lewis is a strong and capable leader, Mark has faith that she’ll rock any interview put before her, and if all else fails he pities the fool that crosses their commander.

The new relationship simmering between the previously single Ares 3 crew slips under Annie’s radar. It’s helped by the fact that there is only so much they can do when there are always people watching them now.

-0-

As soon as Medical deems them healthy enough, their families are allowed to visit.

Not everyone can make it on the same day but those who do swarm in like a plague of locust. Martinez’s wife, Marissa, is especially demonstrative of how happy she is for her husband to be home again. Mark’s pretty certain they disappeared into a janitor’s closet to work on making another Martinez sprog.

The impressive hickey and shit-eating-grin Marissa is sporting when they rejoin the group does nothing to dissuade Mark from this theory.

Watney’s parents, tears streaming down their faces, clutch him to their chests, Chris is positive they’re never letting go again. Even Beth’s parents make it, beyond excited to see she’s made it back in one piece, and without having to eat any of her crew to manage it!

Beck and Vogel’s families arrive the next day. Lewis’ husband, Robert celebrates by bringing a box full of disco funk – much to Mark’s howls of displeasure.

Beth isn’t fooled; she saw his foot tapping to the beat. She shares a secretive look with Chris and the Cheshire grin the doctor sprouts that means they’ll won’t let Mark get away with this for long. Even Rick gets a certain twinkle in his eye, and Beth is sure that Mark will have his locker exploding with disco balls before the week is out.

-0-

Happy to finally be sprung from Medical, Beth buys a house that’s only a forty-minute drive from headquarters. They’re still required to show up for mission debriefings and analysis by NASA’s pet doctors, but after so long cramped in a tiny ship, Johanssen is ready for a little open space that isn’t surrounded by people prodding her with questions and needles.

The house is a few blocks over from Martinez's, though Johanssen professed to having no known knowledge of this, though she suspected that there was a reason the asking price was so low for the house. 

Having never owned her own place before, only renting or leasing, she asks Lewis for her advice. While they’d been doing laps around the track Melissa points out making a room for her hobby of choice was an enriching experience for her. 

Later that day Beth sends Mark a text, mentioning that she’s building a Gamers’ paradise down in her basement. It was a simple thing but she misses the connection to her online family too, now that she’s Earthbound once again. It helps her reconnect with her old life, figure out what she wants to do now that she’s back. Mark sends multiple texts every day asking for her progress and making suggestions. Beck, Vogel and Martinez stop by to help with any heavy lifting required for the remodel.

-0-

If she happened to pick a house that wouldn’t be too far a drive for a doctor to open a nearby clinic or a botanist to find work, well it’s a bonus. This thing between them is still so new; she doesn’t want to assume that what happened in space will keep happening on Earth. But if these little incentives help, she’s more than willing to bring it up in conversation. Subtle-like.

-0-

Every few couple days Chris gets an update on her progress. He isn’t sure where their budding relationship is headed but like the rest of the crew, besides Martinez and Johanssen, he rents an apartment near headquarters, NASA may have let them off property (except for Mark), but it will be weeks of debriefing before they can return home for good.

They do throw a pretty great home warming party for Beth once she’s finished her hobby room. Chris likes the bones of the house; it feels like a great place to raise a family. He mentions as much to Beth and she blushes to the roots of her hair, tipping her chin down so that her hair covers her face, she agreed that it would be a good spot for such an endeavor.

-0-

The tentative relationship Beth has started with Chris Beck starts to mature into something deeper. A few months since their return, Chris ends his lease and moves in with Beth.

Annie is on the phone with them both, well into the evening.

-0-

NASA eventually let’s Mark wander around off property, he accidentally almost starts a riot at a local park, and NASA insists on him having a keeper. He’s too well known by the population and though most people are happy he’s back, there are a few assholes that took exception.

Johanssen extends an invitation for Mark to join her and Beck at the house, and he accepts. The PR team likes it because it take some of the attention away from Beth and Chris sharing a roof, it seems more like a college dorm with all three ‘single’ astronauts rooming together. Beth wonders at their acting skills, that no one seems to have cottoned on to the fact that the three of them are sleeping together, and then remembers how Chris couldn’t lie to save his life, and thinks it’s probably more of America’s lack of exposure to threesomes or moresomes living together.

NASA just loves that moving into her guest room just means he has constant surveillance by his former flight surgeon. 

They decide to leave NASA out of the loop on the relationship they’d started once they’d gotten Mark back from Mars.

Mark understood why his sage advice to each of them had been ignored while he’d been on the red planet; they’d been waiting for him. Now that they’re planetside again, and he’s been freed from living in NASA medical – and feeling way too close to being Dobby the house elf (he’s a free botanist – free!), he starts wooing his boos.

Or tries to woo.

He mostly just tries to be glad he was more successful at surviving alone on Mars because his wooing skills are seriously rusty.

-0-0-

The problem is that while things move along steadily with Beck and Johanssen, things stall out with Mark. His slower recovery is an obstacle in their relationship. NASA let him go but Beck is still leery of pushing his health too much. Now that they’re back on Earth, Mark has a harder time physically keeping up with the younger two astronauts.

NASA insists on him seeing a shrink a few times a week, basically to make sure he’s not Space Nuts. They don’t phrase it that way, but the look in their eyes says it all. Mark tried not to let himself overanalyze anything when he’d been trapped on Mars; he just took it one problem at a time.

The shrink wants to go over everything, detail by minute detail. 

Again and again and again.

Mark’s pretty crabby by the time he makes it back to Johanssen’s every day. Also, Teddy Sanders tells Mark that he has to stop insisting the psychiatrist go fuck themselves.

He’s only moderately successful.

-0-0-

It wouldn’t have been so bad but Mark’s dad has a heart attack. He survives but between work, the upkeep around the house and his father’s care, Mark’s mother is struggling.

Mark kisses Chris and Beth goodbye, and moves back home to help out for a few weeks. He doesn’t want his parents struggling by themselves, not after everything they’ve gone through with him recently. He’s positive his ‘death’ has weakened his father’s health, and even his return to Earth hasn’t brought back the man he remembers before he left for space. 

Mark has to call up the NASA shrink every day and talk about feelings and what he experienced, and between that and helping out his parents he doesn’t always return Chris and Beth’s calls or texts. It’s just every couple, and then its a couple days before he gets back to them, and then he forgets to get back at all. Eventually they stop reaching out.

Looking back on it, Mark could slap himself. Wishes he could go back in time and shake some sense into himself. Maybe if he’d just picked up the phone and reached back life would have turned out so different for the three of them.

Except he didn’t, and then it’s too late.

The relationship between the three of them doesn’t go out with a bang but a whimper.

Beck proposes to Johanssen.

And she says yes.

Mark feels like a bus ran him over.

-0-

With so many preparations being made for the big day, Mark never manages to have a conversation with either Beth or Chris about their relationship fizzling out. 

He goes back and re-reads their text messages and listens to the voicemails that he’d kept putting off. Dad had a doctor’s appointment one day, and the news wasn’t great, so he’d tried to distract the old man. He’d forgotten to call for Beth’s birthday. 

Or the plans to have them fly out for a weekend and meet his parents had fallen through. Mark had had to help his mom with a flooded basement, a sewage line backs up and Mark’s wallet is a causality. By the time he gets replacements for his credit cards, he forgets to book the tickets for his lovers, and the idea is never brought up again.

-0-0-

Too much time passes.

By the time they get back in touch, it’s weird. They’re back to being friends.

Mark thinks that when the people he’s dating get engaged to each other and move on, he should probably move on too.

He wishes it was that easy for him.

-0-

Mark arrives a few days before the wedding, desperate for things to make sense again, but Earth is just as bound and determined to kick the shit out of him as Mars had been.

Beck is surrounded by family at all times, and Beth is constantly on the phone with various vendors providing services for the wedding. He never finds an opening to talk with them.

By the time the newlyweds come back from the honeymoon he’s received the message loud and clear. He moves out of the guest room and returns to Chicago.

-0-0-

It’s weird now.

Mark thinks it should be. He’s shared more of himself with Chris and Beth Johanssen-Beck that anyone else in his entire adult life. Watney had thought he was an equal partner in the relationship, but he’d missed out on more that he’d thought when the crew had been flying through space. 

Perhaps it was just that Beth and Chris were closer than he’d realized, and the cold are truth that Mark hadn’t picked up on was that they were a new couple that had wanted to try something and it hadn’t worked out.

Not for Mark at least.

He tries to move passed it. His mom sets him up on dates but it is really hard to connect with something that has no idea how it feels to be in outer space. That part at least had been easy with Beck and Johanssen. They had been there; it was effortless to talk about how it messed with you, because they shared that experience.

-0-

Mark lucks out when Martinez’s birthday rolls around and he throws an epic bash to celebrate. Rick and Marissa’s sides of the family flood the house, including the Ares 3 crew.

Mark gets into a competition with Rick’s cousin, over who can put away more shots. It’s a stupid bet; Mark has forty pounds of muscle on the guy. This is why he doesn’t understand why an hour later Beck is shaking him awake from underneath the Martinez’s picnic table.

Surprisingly, he somehow ends up back at the Johanssen-Beck place, and Mark is just drunk enough still to babble about how pretty they’d both looked tonight under the stars, how he’d like to watch them fuck and then eat them both out.

Even more surprisingly, they let him.

Hungover Mark Watney is even worse at making life decisions that drunken Mark Watney. It’s how he ends up in some sort of fuck buddy relationship with the Johanssen-Becks. He tries his best to focus on the positive, he has the opportunity to hang out with two of the people that he’s closer to than anyone in the universe again, and when he’s lucky they give him awesome orgasms and let him return the favor.

Pretty great, not the ideal situation he’d hoped for back all those months ago aboard the Hermes, but better than being stuck on Mars, alone, facing almost certain death.

0-0-0

Mark reports back to NASA every few months, stopping over at the Johanssen-Beck household, but it’s not the same as before the heart attack.

There’s a space between them and Mark is a problem solver but he’s not sure he’s equipped to overcome this one.

He doesn’t stop staying with them though.

 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 

“I’m so glad you could make it,” is all Mark hears before Beck is yanking him inside the house, laying him out against the front door. 

It’s a breathtaking kiss, and Mark’s stunned for a few seconds after it ends. Chris is rarely the instigator in any situation, though after that kiss Mark doesn’t understand why not.

Chris still has him pinned, and the shorter man smirks at Mark’s dopey expression. After a few more kisses he threads their fingers together in one hand and leads him down the hall.

Mark hasn’t been kissed so enthusiastically in weeks, despite his mother’s attempts at setting him up with anyone that will stand still long enough at the grocery store, library or church; he hasn’t been able to find anyone that puts Chris and Beth to shame.

Still, it takes him by surprise that Chris and Beth are always so enthusiastic about him joining them again.

With Beth’s recently announced pregnancy, her sex drive has gone through the roof and Chris had hinted that they wouldn’t mind if Mark stayed on a few more days than originally planned. He could probably use the help keeping up with the younger astronaut.

When they reach the bedroom Beth is sprawled out, invitingly, on the king sized bed, and Mark’s never been so glad to have two awesome fuck buddies in his life.

Mark’s only in town for an extra four days but the three of them make the most of it.

-0-0-0-0-0-

A couple months down the road, Chris reminds his very pregnant wife that Mark was coming for a visit. He’s stopping in with NASA about potential guest lectures and staying to visit with Rick and them. 

She’d barely finished her first cup of fake-not-really-real-coffee for the morning, and he’d pointed towards the fridge as he mentioned that Mark’s arrival time would be late that evening, if all went well.

Where he’d pointed on the fridge was a full-sized calendar was pinned in place by a series of rocket magnets (a wedding gift from Chris’ sister, Hailey), Mark had taken great delight in filling it out last time he’d visited. Beth vaguely recalled being annoyed because he’d filled it with fake holidays he’d created on Mars or fictional events, like September 22nd being marked as ‘F & Uncle B’s birthday – Party Business Only’. 

Today was marked in jarring magenta permanent marker as ‘MARKY MARK TIME!’ huge block letters boldly filling the square, but just in case Chris and Beth missed the eye catching color, the date was also circled twice in a shamrock green marker.

Chris had grumbled about the relocation of his magnets, previously they’d held up an article from the paper about their wedding, a few shots from the day and one article about Mark’s successful rescue and return to Earth (Mark had sent copies to everyone in the Ares 3 crew – maybe even everyone at NASA, because he’d liked the article so much, Beth is convinced it’s because they used an old photo of him with a scary, full mustache. Mark refuses to confirm but he also doesn’t deny that is the reason either.)

Beth had been mildly amused by her husband’s disgruntled annoyance about the magnets and bought him a set of replacement magnets of miniature germs. She thinks a less space crazed household might be more concerned that their wedding photos being held up by little diseases. The Johanssen-Beck household is not. If anything the Johanssen-Beck household is ridiculously pleased by such a fact.

Mark’s visit was scheduled to overlap the time Chris would be schooling the other doctors at a medical conference up in Portland; it wouldn’t normally be a big deal for them to be separate, Beth had gone on more than a few solo adventures once her company had started taking off again, but with the pregnancy and bed rest, Dr. Bossy Beck had insisted on someone staying at the house in case she needed anyone. 

Beck’s first choice had been his sister, and Beth had bludgeoned that idea like a clueless baby seal.

In her mind’s eye, Beth had seen where that idea was headed, and after the limited exposure she’d had with Chris’ sister, she never wanted to make herself into an easy target for Hailey’s story time. A critical flaw in an otherwise sweet sister-in-law, but the youngest Beck’s tendency to not understand personal boundaries, had taken on epic portion’s since Beth had married into the Beck family—and this is from a woman who’d shared a small space craft with only four or five other people for over a thousand days. Chris insists it just means she likes Beth, Beth is positive it’s a version of Beck-sibling psychological warfare.  
Instead, they compromised on Mark coming to stay. He’d bumped up his appointment with NASA and agreed to be there. Chris had pointed out that Mark would be in her personal space more than Hailey ever had but she’d spent years with his crazy already and her immunity could use a new booster. And while Mars had given him a few new ticks, he’d never asked to join Beth on a trip to the bathroom like Hailey had the first time they’d met, so he was miles above her in Beth’s choice of bed ridden companion.

After a few minutes where his brow creased and his mouth got all pouty as he was lost in thought, Chris agreed, confident that Mark would contact him if there was even the slightest chance of a medical issue with Beth, and the way the tall, jerk was wrapped around her husband’s finger, it was probably true. She couldn’t fault him too badly for the behavior, she was just as easily wrapped around Chris’ finger, it was that goddamn dimples and blue eyes. They got her, and Mark, every time. 

Besides as restrictive as Dr. Bossy Beck could be, avoiding Disappointed in Your Choices Chris was always a priority for both of them; Beth could use someone that had an equal amount of aversion to Sad Grumpy Cat face.

During Mark’s last visit, when they’d come up from air from their awesome between-the-sheets-actions, they’d asked if he’d be willing to hang out for a few days when Chris’ conference rolled around and his eyes had lit up. Chris had agreed he’d feel 100 pirate-ninjas better if Mark was with her, and if anything the botanist had gotten even more excited when he realized they’d picked up his crazy unit of measure and given it a new definition. Chris had accused him of being thrilled at the evidence that his crazy was catching and infecting them all. Mark hadn’t disagreed.

-0-

Pregnancy brain had gotten to her, she’d forgotten what day it was when she’d woken up, and was glad of the reminder of Mark’s impending visit. It gave her a partner in sending Chris off stupidly happy with the people he had at home, and let some of the stress over him finding a younger, thinner (re: Not Pregnant and HUGE AS A MAV) lover at his conference. If Mark left them in anything other than completely wrung out and spent, it’d be a first.

Plus with a reminder of company, she wouldn’t feel guilty when she placed another Amazon Now delivery order for the third time this week, because she was saving Mark from having to live on Hot Pockets and Pop Tarts. It wasn’t an addiction if she was placing an order for a guest, it was just good manners!

-0-0-

When the three of them had finished up in the shower, Chris had wrangled an impressive dinner of Thai from the nearest shop and they’d started devouring it like a plague of locust.

“So how are your parents handling you being out of their nest?” Beth had thought his question would be met with a gleeful smile and a couple stories about Mark’s parents embarrassing him in front of people in public. Instead, Mark winced and fiddled with his fork before answering. A pit opens up in Chris’ gut at Mark’s discomfort; he shares a look with Beth. Her brow is creased with worry, and Chris is reminded of just how lucky he is that she’d agreed to marry him in the first place.

Mark is the quintessential momma’s boy, if he doesn’t share a story about something his mom always says, or did recently or a story about when he was growing up in Chicago -- then something is clearly wrong with their botanist.

“Well you know how it goes, make a miraculous return to Earth and suddenly parents start having expectations that you should fulfill their every last dream.” He waves the fork in concert with his words, not meeting either of their gazes as he continues, “Suddenly being an astronaut isn’t enough, now I’ve got to settle down and start a family, grow roots, as it were.” Beth smiled Mark’s tendency to use botany terminology, growing roots, she ignores the gnawing pit at the thought of Mark finding someone else and starting a family with them. 

It’s not fair of her but she hates the idea.

Chris fidgeted with his silverware, feeling awkward at the proverbial landmine. Mark starting a family with some lady his mom set him up with from church? He doesn’t like how awful it makes him that he doesn’t want it to happen. He plucks at the first distraction that comes to mind. 

“She didn’t accept the forty-one potatoes you left behind on Mars as her grandchildren then?” Chris diverts his attention, temporarily, and Mark gives Chris a mischievous little boy smile, a twinkle in his eyes, and Beth is reminded of why she fell in love the doctor all over again.

She takes a bite from her dinner and tries to steer the conversation in a better direction, a safer direction, wishing not for the first time for Martinez’s skill with piloting applied towards social situations, she branches off from what Chris had original asked.

“So what type of adventure are we getting up to this weekend while boring Chris putters around his conference like a dodgy old man?”

“Harry Potter marathon!”

Beck sees the dinner conversation spiraling down into which Hogwarts House was best and quickly butted in before the two nerds could start.

“Who is picking up the slack on the Watney Gardens back in Chicago?” Chris blurted out.

Mark starts talking but his wife shoots him a look to say that his Potter inspired panic was noticed and would be added to her ever growing list of Things to Bring Up and Tease Him Over Later. He could have let the conversation run its natural course, it probably wouldn’t have been as bad when they had Martinez there to egg them on but Chris has found that steering the conversation away from hours of Pottermore was best.

“Right now my mom is putting the ‘mother’ in ‘smother’, so when I mentioned my plans to stay here a bit, mom decided to step up and help out with the garden while I’m gone. Dad is doing much better nowadays. Besides she figured I’d add a whole new level of cool to your day, Johanssen. I agreed it was the least I could do for a former crewmate.”

Beth scoffs but Chris notices the corner of her mouth twitching up as she fights to mask her amusement.

“We’re both really happy to have you stay, Mark, you know you’re always welcome with us,” Chris said, giving the older man a small but warn smile. He reaches out and rests a hand on Mark’s arm, sending him a tentative look. Mark really isn’t sure he understands what Chris is saying but before he can comment Johanssen brings up a whole different idea.

“Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, who’s up for some more wild, kinky sex?” Beth proposes, grinning with too many teeth in Mark’s direction. Mark is pretty sure pregnant ladies aren’t supposed to look so intimidating, at best Johanssen might be able to waddle after him, really slowly – glacial movements, slowly – but the fierce look in her eyes warns him that any escape would be futile. She was the borg and he would be assimilated. Sexily assimilated. Hmmm…

He hurled a fake put upon sigh her way all the same, it wouldn’t due to let on how easily he fell apart for these two. His shoulders collapsed down as he leaned his head against his palm, and fake groaningly agreed, “I suppose it’s the least I can do, since you’re both putting me up for a few days.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Chris had been running around for months, constantly skyping or face-timing Vogel and Martinez for advice on how to child-proof the house. Rick had gotten Chris to threaten a Lowes’ employee if she refused to tell him where various made up tools for child proofing the house were located, Rick had almost peed himself when he’d heard Chris was almost escorted out of the store.

Thankfully, Mark is back six weeks later when Katie Johanssen-Beck finally makes her entrance into the world. Chris has never been so glad for NASA drilling them all to stay cool under pressure.

He’s immensely grateful that Mark is there to drive to the hospital, so Chris can instead hold Beth in the back of the mini-van, struggling to remember the lessons from Lamaze class; and unwittingly amazed at his wife’s ability to not only create life but also to squeeze the bones in his hand with a crushing force previously only known to boa constrictors hunting prey.  
He promises to never make fun of the husband/father in movies again; her grip is a thing of awe inspiring beauty, and a potential concern if he wants to consider practicing medicine after this is complete.

“We’re almost there guys – just one more block. I’ve got the list of phone numbers on whom you wanted to be called, as soon as I park I’ll make the calls and then come in.”

Mark glides into the hospital’s drop off point, and Chris takes Beth’s arm to help her inside. The birthing plan lay forgotten in the back seat with Beth’s pre-packed hospital bag.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Hours later, when Chris curls up on the bed with Beth, little Katie in his arms, Mark snaps another photo of them, with the biggest smile on his face.

“Mark, if you don’t sit down and let me get some sleep, I’m sicking Hailey on you when she shows up with the rest of the family,” Beth threatens, exhausted beyond belief and a thousand pirate-ninjas certain that she doesn’t want to see just how washed out and exhausted she’ll look in Mark’s pictures. 

The rest of the family and friends have yet to descend on the hospital suite but Mark’s been snapping photos and film with his phone since the doctors let him back with them.

Cowed, Mark pulls a chair over and makes grabby hands at the baby, Chris would smirk at Mark’s demand, maybe taunt him a little over wanting to hold a baby, but he’s still caught up on the fact that he was part of making this little miracle he’s holding. With the greatest amount of caution, he settles their little girl in Mark’s arms and manages to get his own phone out to snap a picture of Mark gazing down at their daughter like everything suddenly made sense in the universe.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Three months down the line when the NASA Training Director sends a request for Mark to give a guest lecture for the latest training class, he popped up at the Johanssen-Beck house intending to crash out on their guest bed. After seeing the state his friends are in he announces that he’ll be staying for a few weeks; and the overpowering joy Beth feels at his announcement is equal to her relief when Chris had scooped him out of the MAV and brought him back to them on the Hermes.

Chris places Katie in Mark’s arms and the botanist coos down at the screaming baby girl.

“Katie has colic and won’t stop crying, and if I don’t get sleep . . . if I don’t get sleep . . . I don’t know really know what happens to the brain but I think mine might leak out of my ears,” Beth’s voice is brittle as she scrambles to hold onto her grip of reality, but all she feels is a deep need for a month of just sleeping right now. Even the longest coding session when she’d been in college and fueled on nothing but Red Bull and Pringles had never made her feel so drained. Chris just bops his head up and down, staring across the room with a blank gaze. Mark hums and steers them towards their bedroom, making soothing noises.

-0-

From what he’d gathered from a Skype session with Hailey earlier that week; Beth had taken the brunt of the childcare ever since Chris’ Paternity Leave ran out. Chris’ mother, Jeri, had come up for a week when they first brought Katie home and promised to come back if they needed her but then Beth’s dad had come to help out for a couple weeks. He’d left once his available vacation time for work had run out, already depleted due to a broken leg from a snowmobile accident earlier that year.

Mark can tell that Beth is still in recovery from Hailey’s short-lived stay. Unsurprisingly, the partier of the Beck clan didn’t have much of a knack or patience for a small, but ear splittingly loud, bundle of rage. She’d left after a three-day weekend of poopy diapers and near constant crying. Hailey is convinced she deserves a medal of valor; Mark had dissuaded her from sharing that opinion with the new parents, but only just.  
Fresh from not having to care for a newborn, Mark descends on the Johanssen-Beck household and sciences the shit out of them.

In other words, he takes Katie on long walks to the park and botanical garden, or morning jogs with Martinez (trying to maintain fighting shape so that if the chance for the Ares 5 crew pans out he’s ready).

When Chris or Beth have caught a few days of rest, Mark manages to arrange for a cleaning service to come in and help tidy up the house. He even goes to a local farmer’s market and makes one of the best meals Beth can remember tasting. She can’t remember the last time she didn’t just place an Amazon Pantry Now order - - has food always tasted this good?

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Martinez and Watney take Katie out for walks at the nearby park, playing up the gay couple vibe anytime someone approaches. Beth's not really sure what the entertainment factor is but Chris assures her it's their own version of gay chicken, never mind that Watney is bisexual. The best she can guess it plays more to his fear of what Marissa will do if she hears Mark's been macking on her high school sweetheart than his willingness to kiss another man. Beth has after all seen Mark kiss Chris in a multitude of ways.  
Beth and Chris get two solid hours of undisturbed sleep the first time she hears about the duo’s antics, and Katie gets some fresh air out of it, so that's what she chooses to focus on. Not Mark and Rick's weird broship for the ages.

She definitely doesn’t wonder if Marissa and Rick have welcomed Mark the way that Beth and Chris do.

-0-0-0-0-

When November starts to come to a close, Mark explodes into a ball of holiday cheer. Thanksgiving had just been the four of them, and as soon as Beth is done shoving the uneaten turkey into the fridge and trying to figure out the best way to get Chris to make a pot pie out of the leftovers tomorrow, Mark is thundering down from the attic, covered in cobwebs and dust.  
She’s so shocked by his appearance she doesn’t notice the huge box under his arm at first.

“Watney – what the hell?”

“It’s Christmas time, Johanssen!”

Chris comes into the kitchen, having just put Katie down for a nap and quirks a brow at Mark who is still holding the tree box aloft and covered in attic grime.

“Why do you have the Christmas tree box down already?” Chris isn’t sure it’s a question he wants to ask but he feels compelled to none the less.

Mark frowns and tightens his grip on the box, like either of them might decide to snatch it off of him. “Uh, because it’s Christmas time you Grinch!”

Chris heaves a sign but doesn’t protest. “Already?” Ok, he doesn’t protest much. He doesn’t bring out the Grumpy Cat expression, so Mark takes that for agreement that it was high time for Christmas decorations. Beth was a harder nut to crack.

“You’re insane.” She folds her arms across her chest. “I literally just shoved the leftover turkey in the fridge --- the dishes from dinner haven’t even been touched yet, and you want to drag the Christmas tree out? You’re delusional!”

“Ah come on, party pooper, if I don’t get cracking on this tree you guys won’t have it up in time for December 25th, and then poor Katie won’t have anywhere to hang her kick ass ‘First Christmas’ ornament!”

They both melt at the mention of it being Katie’s first Christmas, just as Mark knew they would and it only takes a little more prodding before they agree to start preparations for the next holiday tomorrow, although the compromise is that it Mark has to help with the dishes tonight.

-0-0-

“Your Christmas letter was hilarious this year, Chris!”

The young doctor smiles, and wedges his cell phone more firmly between his shoulder and ear. He’d just been dropping the last batch of Christmas cards in the mail when his sister had called.

“Yeah, we thought it was pretty good.”

Beth and Mark had spent a gloriously drunken afternoon typing it up. Rick had even skyped at one point to add his opinion on the final product.

“I didn’t realize Mark was your ‘nanny’ – wasn’t he the astronaut you guys left behind?”

“Wait – what?” A coil of dread unspools down his spine; perhaps he should have taken a closer look at the Christmas letters before sending them out. It’d been a chance to get out and away from the 24/7 Christmas music Mark has insisted on playing since December 1st, he hadn’t thought to look the gift horse to closely in the mouth.

“The hot guy that always answers your incoming skype sessions – Mark. Why did you put in your Christmas letter that he’s your nanny, didn’t he have any alternative form of work to fall back on? I could think of something a little more fun I wouldn’t mind him doing with me if he wanted to earn a little cash.”

Chris made a face. “Gross, Hails.”

Although Chris could vouch firsthand that Mark could make an extremely comfortable living if he’d ever turned to sex for money. Just the other week Chris had found himself doing the dishes for Mark in payment for a blowjob. It wasn’t until afterwards that Chris realized that Mark and Beth had spent the entire day trying to bake Christmas cookies, and hadn’t felt the need to wash any of the dishes afterward, but it had been more than worth it on his end. Still, Mark was hardly the hired help.

“We’ve introduced you before to Mark; you know he’s a close friend.”

Hailey snorts. “Shit, Chris, he’d have to be – the guy’s been living with you guys for like a year! I’d be worried he’s fucking Beth, but the way they make fun of each other there’s no way Beth would let him in her pants.”

Chris chokes, badly. Stupidly glad that his sister can’t see him through the phone, he tries to end the call with her but she keeps prattling on about Mark. Chris knows his face beet red and his mind is whirling a million miles a minute. Hailey was wrong, Mark wasn’t sleeping with his wife -- he was sleeping with both of them.  
They all had been since before they’d made it back to Earth. They’d never explicitly talked about it, but Chris and Beth had both been so incredibly happy to have Mark back from Mars. They’d barely been hanging on before they’d found out that Mark had survived alone, for months, on the deserted planet. 

The new layer of guilt had been crushing, utterly devastating. It had hit Lewis most of all, he’d never seen the commander doubt herself but Watney had a way of making people do out of character things. When the crew had heard of Rich Purnell’s plan they’d all jumped on it like desperate people. Starving for the slightest chance of redemption, to bring their boy back home.

That’s what they’d been, starving for Mark. For his friendship and forgiveness, for his stupid jokes and nerdy comments, for the crazy smart way he always managed to solve problems and never gave up. Chris had even started to miss the Yankees vs. Cubs arguments that Rick and Mark would start, taking hours going over various stats of long dead players, and how the league had changed so much in recent years.

When they’d done the impossible and saved their lost crewmate, the entire world had been celebrating right along with them. All had felt right in the universe again.

When Mark had agreed to join them, it felt like a natural progression. Only now it seemed like they’d stalled out and skipped over about a hundred important steps. Or at the very least, skipped out on a series of overly important conversation.

In space it had seemed simple. A way to celebrate how deliriously happy they were to have Mark back with them; an act to prove to themselves that Mark was really back with them, alive and on the road to recovery. Everything had been so new between Beth and him that he hadn’t wanted to press too much about including Mark, certain that the older man would drift away from them once they’d made it back to Earth.

And he had. After his father’s heart attack they lost touch. Communication shut down and Mark kept cancelling plans. It’d broken them.

Then after the wedding Mark had drifted back to Chicago, and only made brief stopovers when NASA insisted they needed to see him for some sort of meeting or test. He even started staying at Rick’s place a few times.

At least until Katie had come along. When most of their friends had fallen away, Mark had instead moved in and started helping them take care of their daughter. Mark, who had the entire world at his feet had instead decided to become their nanny. Chris felt like he’d been sucker punched.

“Hey if he’s single, maybe let him know that I’d be interested if he wants to make some extra cash!” Hailey winked.

“I’ll uh be sure to do that.” Chris agreed, knowing full well he would never mention it to Mark. “Listen, sis, I’ve got to go, make sure you have a good holiday and I’ll give you a call on Christmas.”

-0-0-0-0-

Chris tries to bring up the situation with Mark, and with Beth, and with the both of them together but he never manages to get the conversational ball rolling. After the holidays, everyone is so excited about the New Year, and Katie started crawling so they don’t talk about how their previous relationship had fallen apart, and now that Mark was back again, they might try to repair it, instead they rush around trying to make sure Katie can’t possibly hurt herself.

-0-

Before Chris knows it, its spring and they decide that instead of having a deep emotional discussion about whether Mark was interested in become a permanent part of their relationship, they somehow devolve into deciding to throw a backyard BBQ. Mark is all over any event where it’s socially acceptable for him to pig out on delicious grilled meats. Beth is happy to avoid the topic her husband keeps trying to bring up. Chris is happy for the chance to try out his new grill.

It falls on the weekend that, according to Mark’s calendar, is Martian Independence Day. Beth sends out emails to the rest of the crew and a few of the staff at NASA that they’re still close with, as well as to their family and friends, inviting them to the event. More people than she thought RSVP back that they’re attending and bringing additional guests.

It’ll be Katie’s first big debut, and Beth is still a little nervous about that many people all at once, Chris thinks she’ll be a crowd pleaser and that Beth is worrying needlessly; he points out that if all else fails they can always hide out in Johanssen’s nerd cave in the basement. There are even baby supplies so they wouldn’t have to leave cover until the party was over.  
It’s silly, and it won’t happen, but it does make her feel better about the impending crowd.

-0-

Melissa Lewis and her husband, Robert, are the first to arrive on scene. They bring wine, and coo over how adorable the Johanssen-Beck baby has become, Melissa even orders Mark to let her hold the little girl.

A few of Beth and Chris’ friends show up, and then before she knows it Rick Martinez pulls up with a van full of kids, and his wife, Marissa.

Rick gleefully delivers about six different dishes to the food table, every single one of them is made from potatoes.

Not to be out done, his wife sends one of the kids over to Mark with a plate laden with a heavy spoonful of each. Mark struggles to hide his revulsion at so many potato dishes and ultimately fails. Even after the oldest Martinez spawn says that her dad had told them that Mark loved potatoes so much that it was the only thing he would eat when he was on Mars.

Before Chris can catch Mark’s hopefully child friendly reply, although he wasn’t holding his breath, the rest of the guests start arriving in waves. Most only stay long enough to gobble up a plate of food and say how adorable Katie has become before taking off, but the Ares 3 crew lingers. They even manage to get Vogel and his family on Skype for a good half hour.

-0-

“So I take it congratulations are in order,” Rick grins, taking a pull from his beer and nodding at Beth, wiggling his eyebrows at her. Marissa smacks her husband’s arm but looks back to Beth like she awaiting a certain reaction.

Awkward socially at the best of times, the computer expert isn’t really sure what the Martinez couple is expecting her to say. They’d visited a few times since Katie’s birth, so they’ve already congratulated the Johanssen-Becks on their daughter.

“Thanks, I guess, we’re really happy with how Katie’s doing,” she answers, feeling like she’s missing something mission critical in what Risk’s trying to say. Risk’s brow furrows and even Marissa looks confused by her response, though she recovers faster than her husband.

“Yes, of course we’re all impressed with how big Katie’s gotten since our last time seeing her! Mark won’t stop crowing about how strong her grip is,” Marissa exclaims, waving towards where Mark is toting the little infant around the crowd in one arm. Beth is distracted by how good Mark’s bicep looks in the short sleeved t-shirt Chris had gotten Mark for his last birthday, as she joins in watching her friend tow Katie in one arm.

And then the last part of what Marissa says catches up to the hacker. “Wait, when did you talk to Mark about Katie?”

Rick laughs. “Yeah, right! I can hardly pull my wife away from their Skype dates, yesterday Mark was calling about the best recipe for baby teething biscuits.”

Chris wanders over in time to overhear Rick. “Well, infant nutrition is extremely important,” he counters.

Marissa shots rick a confident smirk. “See, even Dr. Beck agrees!”

“My mom fed me a steady diet of Oreos and Ritz crackers, and I turned out just fine!”  
Marissa, Chris and Beth just stare at the pilot in abstract horror before as one they all turn to one another with identical looks of understanding on their faces.

“That explains so much!” Beth says eyes wide and lips fighting a smile. Chris doesn’t bother resisting a smirk at Rick’s expense and Marissa is all out cackling at this point.

“Just imagine how tall he would have been, if his mother hadn’t stunted his growth!” Marissa adds.

“HEY!”

-0-

Later, when the party is coming to a close, Chris and Mark are going around the house and ousting lingering guests; Beth has a garbage bag she’s filling with various trash left throughout the yard from the party when she comes across Rick and Marissa talking as they load their sleeping kids into the van.

Instead of moving on she pauses in cleaning up and squeezes closer to the older couple. She figures she’ll at least get something good to tease Martinez back with but what she ends up overhearing is about the last thing she expected.

“I thought you said that this party was an announcement them being together?”  
Beth’s brow crinkles. Why would Chris and she celebrate their wedding now in the spring? There anniversary wasn’t for another six months! Marissa and Rick had been at the wedding, Rick had even been part of the wedding party, and she doesn’t understand how they would think they’d have a party in the spring for a fall anniversary.

“I thought it would be a coming out of the closet type deal? This was just a barbeque.” Marissa sounds disappointed.

Beth peers around the foliage to get a better look at the couple, confused more than anything.

She sees Rick shrugs his shoulders as he belts their youngest into his safety seat. “With how stoked Mark was about the party, I thought it would be them announcing they were all together again type shindig.”

Beth is so shocked by Rick’s comment she remains rooted to the spot until long after the Martinez clan have finished loading into the van and have pulled away.

The computer hacker doesn’t move for a long time. It’s the first time that someone has mentioned their previous relationship with Mark. Since the wedding it’s easy to forget that a few people were aware of just how close Chris and she were to Mark. That she’d wanted to share her life with both of these men, split everything three ways from chores to bills to happy moments.  
Chris spots her in the bushes, and asks why she’s skipping out on her fair share of party cleanup. Mark starts razzing her on skimping on her fair third of the cleaning.

And it hits her that perhaps they weren’t all on the same page with what was going on. Maybe it’s time for her to stop dodging that conversation Chris keeps trying to have with her.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

“Oh, sweetie, let your nanny know that I’m still waiting on that kale-spinach dip recipe! Your father just loved it!”

Beth looks up at her mother’s face on her screen. “What are you talking about, nanny? We don’t have a nanny.”

Darlene Johanssen chuckles. “Ok, well, your ‘manny’ or au pair, whatever you call him. The boy from the Christmas letter. He’s wonderful and you should pay him more!” Beth is at a loss as to what her mother thinks she’s talking about until she remembers the drunken Christmas letter she’d composed with Mark and Rick. Rick had called Mark a nanny and her drunken brain had thought that was the height of humor and entered it into the letter.

“Oh, he was such a darling, carrying little Katie around all night! I got the cutest snap of him and her; I’ll have to send it to you in the mail next time I go to the post office.”

“Mom, Mark isn’t a nanny! He was part of my crew from the Ares 3 mission!”

Darlene plowed on, not having heard, “You’ll have to explain again how I get the picture off my phone so I can print it out and send it to you!”

Beth needed to say it to someone, “Mom!”

“And Chris was such a sweetheart, last night! It’s so nice how young men are stepping up and helping out with the child rearing nowadays! Why, I read an article the other week about – “

“MOTHER!”

Darlene stopped midsentence. “Yes, what is it? I’ve told you before; it’s a terribly rude habit for a young woman to interrupt!”

“Mother we don’t have a nanny, Mark isn’t our nanny!”

Darlene looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Oh, ok. So why was your friend carrying your daughter around all last night then, that’s a bit odd, Bethy.”

“I . . .,” Beth was at a loss. Mark always carried Katie around. Ever since her birth and then when he’d shown up months and months ago, staying on after his guest lecture to help them out when they’d been burnt out from trying to raise Katie on their own. She can’t imagine not having him around to help out but she’s positive that fuck buddies don’t really take part in rearing your child. It seemed rude to call Mark a nanny. He’s so much more than that to both her and Chris.

Besides, it’s not like they paid him or he’d ever made a comment hinting at wanting to be paid for helping them out. He was family. The entire Ares 3 crew was family. Maybe just not in the same was as Mark, since she’d never had a desire to have sex with anyone other than Chris and Mark from the crew.  
The more she thought about it though, the stranger it seemed that she hadn’t gleaned onto how odd it was for Mark to still be in their guestroom, helping out.

The crew was family and regularly spoke with all of their other former crewmates; but Beth had never considered calling Lewis up and asking her about how to take care of Katie. Even when Chris had talked with Alex and Rick about kid tips, he’d never broached the subject of them dropping everything and coming to help out.

It’d be easy to say that Mark didn’t have his own wife and family to take care of (as always Beth fights the hackles that want to rise at the mere suggestion), so naturally out of all their friends he’d be the first person they’d call but it didn’t sit right, it felt disingenuous. Mark was easily the most famous astronaut on the planet, Annie Montrose had stressed after they’d returned to Earth just how famous all of them were now, especially Watney. There had been extensive campaigning to bring Mark home, so he’d long been a household name since his death and then not-death.

There were overwhelming opportunities available to Mark.

And he’d been acting like their live in nanny.

Did that mean what she hoped it meant? That maybe they could get back the relationship with Mark that they’d had before his father’s heart attack and their wedding?

What were they to Mark?

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“Mark, honey, when are you planning on coming back home anytime soon, sweetheart?”

Danger bells started going off in Mark’s brain. His mother used two endearments within a single sentence; she wanted something and didn’t think Mark was going to react well.

“What are you talking about, ma?”

“Sweetie, you’ve been helping your friends for months. Don’t you think it’s about time you came back to Chicago? Your father mentioned the other day how this was the first year you haven’t been railing to go to a Cubs game with him as soon as the season started.”

“I’ve just been busy, lately, that’s all.”

Mark could hear the frown in his mother’s voice. “Marky, we’ve got tickets for the game this weekend, why don’t you come back home and you can go with your father. You know I’m not a big baseball fan. He’d be thrilled to get to talk stats with you, and I could make your favorite dinner.”

It’s tempting; Mark really hadn’t been home since Katie came into the world. “I would but the family reunion is this week, and we were planning on driving up to California.”

“Oh.”

Mark pauses and goes over what he’d just said; sure there hadn’t been anything that should cause such a reaction in his mother. But he knows that ‘oh’ and it is sending off alarm bells in his head. He can’t pinpoint what she’s focusing on though, with his mother it could be just about anything. “Oh, what?”

“Well, Mark you know you could have told me that you’d become part of a partnership with the Johanssen-Becks! I’d have been thrilled!” The warm enthusiasm in his mother’s voice is at odds with the acidic feeling in his gut.

“It’s not; we’re not, mom it’s not like that.” He stutters, leaving out the ‘anymore’ and thinking of how to explain a friends with benefits relationship with his mother is probably on his list of things he never wants to do, right next to Return to Mars.

“Well, honey, if you’re not in a real relationship with these people, why are you going to their family reunion? I know you thought it was funny to say you were the nanny in that letter back at Christmas, but you do realize you’re really not there to take care of their baby, right, Mark?”

It’s a stab in the gut, all the more painful because his mother means for it to be a gentle reminder and it’s something that Mark shouldn’t have ever forgotten. Katie isn’t his baby. He’s not a part of Johanssen-Beck family; the most he can hope for would be to be considered a crazy Uncle who spoils her rotten when he comes to visit.

That’s all his trip was meant to be back when Beth had given birth a couple weeks before, a short visit when he gave a guest lecture. How did he let it spiral out of control so far?

Feeling sick, nothing sounds better than going home and letting his own mother baby him for a while. He’s brave, he survived on Mars alone for so long but Mark isn’t sure he’ll be able to survive this. Not again. It’s been close to three years since he’d been rescued from the surface of Mars. He’d been with Chris and Beth for almost that entire time, off and on when he was in town before Katie was born, and they’ve never mentioned wanting to deepen the relationship beyond to what they had shared originally.

Mark knew he was a goner when they’d offered to let him join them on Hermes, and they’ve had a lot of really mind blowing sex, Mark had no complaints in that department, but there’s never been a drive for them to define if what they had was more than a fuck buddy’s situation again.

It scraps him raw in a way he doesn’t want to examine too closely. Maybe a little distance will help.

“Yeah, yeah of course, Ma. I’ll see if I can get a ticket back for the weekend.”

-0-

“What do you mean, Mark isn’t coming?”

Beth shrugs at the computer screen, her father’s frowning face staring back at her. “Just what it sounds like, Dad.”

“He promised he’d show me how to pick out the best vegetables at the organic hippie food market when you all came up, next.”

Beth scowls, feeling targeted for something she didn’t have a good understanding on. “Well he’s a grown man and he decided to go home, so I don’t know what to tell you dad, I guess he wasn’t looking forward to a week with hippies.”

The conversation goes downhill from there.

-0-0-0-0-

The Johanssen Family Reunion is an unmitigated disaster. There was no consoling their daughter when halfway to their destination, Beth realized they’d forgotten her favorite stuffed animal.

Chris hadn’t realized just how much they’d come to depend on Mark until he wasn’t there to help share the load of battling off unwanted attention from obnoxious family members or more importantly to help take care of Katie.

The both know that there are millions of single parents raising children on their own, and a fair share of people that have a second parent to depend on, what they’re not sure what it says about them that even with each other to lean on they’re struggling to get through the week.

Katie misses Mark. She hates Beth’s Aunt Deride, who tries to put her in a super ruffle dress. She gets a super bad diaper rash and Chris can’t find the brand of ointment they decided works best for Katie at the local Wal-Mart.

By the time they get back to their house, Beth and Chris are in firm agreement; they’re never going on a family trip without Mark again. No exceptions.

The trick is getting Mark to put down those roots his mother has been hassling him about for years, and convincing him to do it with a married couple with a baby.

-0-0-

A few days after Mark’s trip to Chicago for a little R&R (re: mum spoiling), Teddy Sanders’ secretary waves him down with a request for a meeting with the director. Apparently, the man in charge had a proposition he wanted to make to Mark. Intrigued, he scoops Katie up from Mindy Park’s desk and heads into Teddy’s office to see what’s up.

Apparently NASA is really interested in the idea of a Mark Watney Syllabus course to the next bunch of astronaut recruits. They want to do a trial run this next semester, and NASA figures that the Mark would be the best guy for the job, and since he’s been hanging around Houston (bringing Katie in to show off to the other astronauts and support staff), they figured he’d be willing to stick around for another 8 weeks and lead a trial course.

His first instinct is to call Beth and Chris so they can celebrate with Mark in a wholly unwholesome way and then he recalls the advice from his mom, and instead starts looking for a three month leases around the area.

-0-0-

Chris is pretty devastated by Mark moving out, again.

Katie isn’t much better.

Beth is sure that it’s Earth’s way of getting back at them for spending so much time in outer space.

-0-0-0-

Mark stops by every now and then, and Katie is thrilled to pieces every time. So are her parents.

The class is going well, and it looks like Mark will be offered a more long-term position on the teaching staff.

-0-

Mark still joins Martinez on his morning run. Without Katie it’s horrible and hellish, but it gives him something to focus on other than how much he misses the Johanssen-Beck family.

Mostly just how much he hates running.

-0-  
Mark is miserable. His class is great but with Martinez training with the Ares 5 crew, Mark’s social circle is pretty much dried up. He still misses Chris, Beth and Katie. All the running in the world isn’t going to change that.

When Mark’s class comes to a close, and he moves back to Chicago once his lease is up.

-0-0-0-

Martinez stares at Johanssen in shock.

“You do realize our boy isn’t going to decide you have to take him back, right?”

Beth scowls.

“Come on, Johanssen. You know as well as I do that Mark is still pretty messed up about Mars. He’d feel like it was being greedy to ask you for more than we’ve all already given in coming back to save him.”

“That’s bullshit! We all decided to go back, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Martinez groans. “I know that, and you know that – hell Teddy Sanders at NASA knows that, it’s why the bastard didn’t want to tell us about the possibility in the first place. But you know who doesn’t know what, Beth?”  
“Mark?”

“Bingo.” He shoots his fingers at her like guns.

Rick shoots her a pissed look, and Beth realizes that coming to Mark's best friend to find out how to get him to come back might not have been their brightest idea.

"This has got to end; you guys have got to stop leaving Mark twisting in the wind." It's the first time Beth can ever recall Martinez using an angry tone. Ever. "You either want him as part of your triad or you need to leave him the fuck alone.”

Rick leans in closer, looking around to make sure no one is actively trying to listen. “We left him on a deserted plant for over 19 months-- the guy thought he was going to die every single fucking day-- wrote me a letter asking me to tell his parents when it happened!” Rick stops, voice choked up and his hands clenched in fists at his side.

He looks up and admits, “He’s an asshole, and aggravating, and the biggest nerd I know, but out of all the facts I know about Mark Watney only three matters in the end. He is without a doubt my ride or die bitch, he forgave us for leaving him to die on Mars and he is so in love with you and your husband it gives me cavities just thinking about it."

Martinez stepped right in her face, and stared her dead in the eyes.  
"So are you going to be the people who deserve Mark or are you going to be the people that desert him, again?"

-0-

The flight to Chicago is horrible. Katie cries and cries the whole time; the entire plane is glaring daggers and muttering loudly by the time they land.

It's a struggle to find Mark's parents' place but they eventually do. An older woman with surprisingly familiar eyes answers the door when they get up the nerve to knock. She looks different when she isn't bawling and clinging to Mark like she didn't think she'd ever get to hold her baby boy again.

She gives them a tight lipped glare but at Katie's sleepy stare she melts.

"Would you like to hold your granddaughter, Katie?" Chris knows just what buttons to push, because Mrs. Watney nods and completely lets her guard down as she holds out her arms for the small little girl. Katie, bless her heart, must sense something important is about to happen or that Mrs. Watney looks enough like Mark for her to be deemed acceptable because she goes over to the older woman without any of the usual fuss.

"Oh, what a joy you are, little girl. Just as sweet as Marky said." She places a kiss on Katie's forehead, which must seal the deal for the tyke because she falls asleep without much prompting long after. 

Mrs. Watney rocks her a little before settling into a rocking chair in the living room.

"He's in the backyard, tending the garden." She indicates with a nod where she means.

Chris and Beth nod, sharing a look before moving toward the indicated sliding glass door.

"You better not break his heart again."

"No, ma'am." They chorus.

-0-

Mark is tooling around in the dirt, looking pretty miserable for a botanist who often declares playing in the dirt is one of his favorite hobbies.

"Ma, I told you --"

"She's inside," Beth interrupts.

Mark swings around, looking pole axed. "What are -- where's Katie?!? Is she alright, oh god--!!"  
Chris closes the distance between them, grabbing Mark by the shoulders, forcing his attention to focus on the doctor.

"She's fine, she's inside with your mother," he reassures.

Mark trusts them enough to believe Chris because he sags against the younger man like a puppet whose strings have been sliced by an unexpected samurai.

"Don't scare me like that." Mark tries to glare but the relief in his eyes is too fresh and fragile.

"Sorry, babe,” Chris says, trying not to let Mark’s flinch at the pet name hurt. He pushes on. Sometimes the only way forward was through.

"We wanted to come and apologize."  
Mark shoots them a bewildered look, a scared look in his eyes. "For what?"

Like he doesn't know what they could possibly be apologizing for but he's terrified to take a stab at what they might mean.  
"We thought. . . I thought you understood your place with us before, Mark. When your dad’s heart attack happened we got engaged and I took the easy way out," Chris started to explain. Beth stepped up next to him, reaching out to lay a hand on both of their arms.  
"We both did." She frowns. "We didn't think you'd want to stick around after we got back to Earth and instead of being adults about it and checking with you, we let you drift away from us without a fight."

"You guys, I'm a grown man, not a damsel in distress--"

"No! She's right, fuck. We should have – we fucking should have - -you deserve people that will fight for you, Mark.” Chris looks stubborn and mad and Beth has maybe never loved him as much as she does in this moment. “We want to be those people. We want to fight for you. Always. The way we should have back then."

Beth has never seen Mark look so flabbergasted. Like a lost little child. Probably like he did when he woke up with shrapnel sticking out of his gut, and abandoned and left for dead by his crew, left to die. She looks him in the eyes, feeling herself tear up, her eyes start to get suspiciously shiny.

The reminder of how they lost Mark once solidifies her resolve. They won’t let him down again. 

"Please, Mark. Come home." She reaches out toward him but he remains still, staring at her hand as if he’s never seen one before in his life. Beth doesn’t drop it.

"We want you to feel like an equal person in this relationship, your voice matters, Mark.”

"You're our only hope, Mark Watney. You complete us."  
Mark laughs, startled and without meaning to -- its choked up and ugly and their are tears falling down his cheeks but he laughs, reaching out for the first time to grab a hold of them both.

"Shit, you know I can't possibly resist a bastardized quote from an original Star Wars and a Tom Cruise rom com!"

Chris snuffles, it sounds suspiciously wet and he leans against Mark, burying his face in where Mark's neck and shoulder meet. "Please, I'm sorry. We're sorry. It won't happen again. Just please, don't go. Please come back to us."

Mark reaches up, slowly, bringing his hand down to rest on the back of Beck’s skull. He tucks the younger man more firmly against him, turning to whisper in his ear but loud enough for Beth to pick up, 

"I think I can manage that."

Beth’s too choked up to move, her throat is sore and scratchy, and she wants to hug the shit out of Mark but knows they need to take things slow, talk it out before they start falling back into old pitfalls, thinking they’re all on the same page again.

 

"I'm so glad to hear you three have managed to work it out," Mrs. Watney says, leaning out the sliding glass door. "But you might want to come back inside, it sounds like my grand baby is about to say "papa" for the first time!"

It’s just the right thing to bring them back together in action. All three rush inside, Katie's gaze locks on Mark and she smiles for what feels like the first time in weeks. Her little arms swing up, her hands reaching up and out towards him in the classic ‘pick me up’ gesture.

"Pa... pa... pa-rite neenja?"

"Did our daughter just-- " Chris glances, stupefied at Mark and Beth.

"Our kid is officially the coolest baby, Martinez is going to be green with envy!” Mark crows, scooping Katie up and swinging her around in celebration.

"Watney, just what have you been telling her, that could lead to your crazy unit being the first word she says?"

Mark smiles, "I definitely don't have a bet with Martinez about it, if that's what you're insinuating."

"Pa... pa ... pirate ninja!"

-0-0-

They still don’t make sense as a threesome but Mark’s ok with that. There are four people in this family, and though it sometimes makes life more difficult, in the long run the scales always balance out in their favor.

Sometimes they just have to apply their collective boot to life’s throat a little first.

-0-0-  
The End  
-0-


End file.
